The Hubby let the SSLP out to play last night and we did our traditional date night: margaritas and tableside guacamole at a fabu Mexican restaurant and then giggling on to a movie. We saw a little film called Sunshine Cleaning with Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.

Nice film. And by nice, I mean nicely done. It's not fantastic, not horrible. I loved the two actresses. The gloriously beautiful Emily Blunt (formerly Ruthie "Pig-face Draper" from Dan in Real Life and I guess a really good part in The Devil wears Prada) looks fantastic all tore up and tattooed. She's a dynamo cryer. In the post-film bathroom break, I realized my face was all pinked up from weeping with her. And Amy Adams, I like her. I want to pick her up and carry her around in my pocket. A.) Because she's a petite little thing and B.) because she has this gorgeous, wide-eyed vulnerability and a gut-wrenching smile. I was cringing for her through most of the film because of the bad, baaaad choices she was making for herself. Roger Ebert called her character a good mother in his review, but I don't know that I would agree. Loving and understanding your child is not enough. I think making better choices, for yourself and not just your child, is also a required element to being a good parent. Not to say that good parents never make mistakes - but the things she was doing were pretty much no-brainers in the good parenting manual.

The best part about the whole thing was the fateful kittycat who was so fluffy and cute (reminiscent of my little man Elvis that I had when I was in high school, said the SSLP). The film itself tied up a little too neatly, and it was kind of uneven. Though I knew it would be hard to make a movie about crime scene clean-up funny, I did expect a wee bit more dark humor than I got. It was daringly inconsistent in tone, with the only humor in the first third, and then the rest heavy heavy heavy. Then it lightened up again in the end with its convenient ending (which also somehow left us with questions - work that out!). However, I enjoyed the actors and the sexual chemistry between Amy Adams's character and the one-armed man so much that it was still an enjoyable watch. Rent it on Netflix some Thursday night.

One more comment: Steve Zahn is one of my top ten fave comedic actors, and I had suuuuch a hard time watching him be such a skeev-ball in this movie. It was an interesting casting choice because Zahn himself - his face, voice, and timing - is so perennially likeable. Skeevy.

I'm done Siskeling. Here is yet more proof that animals have souls.


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